Scratchy speakers

[JordanD]

Hello all,

I have been removed from the forum for several years, life got crazy for me. I will spare the life story and get down to it. One thing that never changed in my time away is my love for my ML Theos. But semi recently (last couple years) I have been experiencing this intermittent problem where one of the speakers will cut out and just sound scratchy and muted, then will come back. I can’t really tell if the problem is worse or I just notice it more. Its harder to tell it’s happening when it’s a movie or TV, but music makes the problem stick out. It’s not speaker specific, but as of lately the left one is doing it and the right isn’t. But the right has done it in the past.

It seems to be, from what I can tell, something to do with the connections. Jiggling a chord will usually fix it for a little while. I suppose it could be the amp, but I’m not sure.

I use silver tipped speaker wire from audio quest. Spades on speaker side and banana on amp side (due to connection availability). The spades and clips are decently oxidized, so maybe clean them up? Can dust on the panels do this?

any guidance is appreciated.

cheers

 

[spkrdctr]

Don't waste time worrying about dust. If you wiggle the speaker wire and it fixes the problem, you have done a great job of troubleshooting the issue. It is your connections. First I would check the banana plug connections to make sure everything is tight. Then you have to retighten the spade connections as they are notorious for loosening over time. I think after you do this on both speakers you will find your problem has disappeared. Let us know what happens!